So, you’ve decided to open a restaurant and you’re ready to start designing the space you’ve imagined your guests spending time in. You may already have a vision, but designing a restaurant is more than having good taste. Being purposeful in your design is the key to great marketing and a successful business. That means creating a space that promotes your brand and keeps your guests coming back for more.
From your theme to your restaurant table top, there are many factors to consider that contribute to developing a successful brand. Where do you begin? And how do you design a restaurant for your business?
Concept Development
Start by visiting other similar restaurants you enjoy as a guest. As you dine, observe the layout, decor, and colors. Note the things that you like and the things that you don’t. How do guests interact with one another and the staff? Do customers stay at their restaurant table top when they finish their meal? A good atmosphere will invite guests to linger and continue their experience.
Take the time to examine current trends in the industry and incorporate your own creative spin on them to fit your brand. Think about your location as well as your target demographic. While you may have always dreamt of opening a high-end establishment, your location might be a better fit for a family-friendly atmosphere.
Finally, decide on a specific theme of your restaurant, how that theme will support your menu and vice-versa, and how you might accommodate special events and various seasons.
Table Tops and Seating
In a perfect dining experience, there would be no such thing as a bad restaurant table top. However, very few establishments can get away with having no problem areas in their dining room. Unfavorable areas include tables near the front entrance, kitchen entrance, restrooms, and in the middle of the dining room.
Fortunately, you can disguise possible problem areas by placing dividers, in the form of decorative partitions, beautiful greenery, or screens between tables, depending on your preferred aesthetic and theme.
Before opening day, it’s a good idea to examine your layout from a first-person perspective. Sit at every table in your dining room and study the view from each seat. You may discover that
one has a direct view of the kitchen or bus station, while another table experiences a draft from the door or air conditioning.
Restrooms
Your restaurant’s overall design and ambiance should carry through to the restrooms. In fact, your restroom is another creative opportunity you have to enrich your guest experience. Intriguing art, colorful tile, warm lighting, and large mirrors help make the statement that your guests matter and add to their overall experience. Restrooms should be checked frequently at the beginning and ending of shifts (more often if busy), have good ventilation, and always look great.
Designing for Profit
It’s given that most venues are curated with the customer in mind. The look, the feel, and the theme are all factored into the type of experience we want our guests to have.
But a restaurant design is more than just aesthetics. It’s important to keep the staff in mind and what it takes for a restaurant to be efficient. After all, your business’s profitability doesn’t just depend on its “theme and colors”, but on how swift and accurately menu items are served, and your staff’s ability to produce a unique experience.
Make sure that your service layout and restaurant table top arrangement is as beneficial to your staff as it is to your guests. After all, how well you serve your customers will determine what they spend, but how well your staff can provide that experience is defined by the venue and service design.
